This is probably something that doesn't need to be said to the more experienced shooters amongst us but for the less experienced or perhaps just a reminder of how important the basics are I thought I'd share.
Over the last couple of weeks I've been noticing a drop in scores when I shoot pistol. The match I shoot is a variation of steel plate challenge where you have 10 targets to engage at 25 yards. It's a pretty laid back match with no time limit so you don't have to rush. Every hit is worth 10 points and you have 4 go's for a maximum score of 400
Usually I score around 350 but recently those scores have dropped to late 200's - low 300's. It took me a while to figure out what I was doing wrong and after going through just about everything I could think of and breaking down each shot into stages I finally worked out that I was lifting my head and dropping the front of the barrel at the end of each shot so I could see the target.
I don't know why I started doing this and I wasn't consciously aware of doing it. Today I went out and made a point of concentrating on my sight picture through the shot. The result was that I shot 370. Of my 3 misses one was in the first frame and the other two were in my final frame. The last two both came after I had a malfunction with my pistol (both cases had slight bulges that caused them to sit slightly proud in the revolver's cylinder and caused it to hang up).
I can't say that I 100% would have hit those two shots if it wasn't for the malfunctions but I'm reasonably confident I would have. My previous best score in this match was 360 so by just paying attention to the follow through on each shot I was able to beat my best score and shoot a near perfect match.
One thing I found odd is that I have a previously taught a few of my friends to shoot rifles and one of the hardest things I've found to teach someone, and hence something I emphasise a lot, is correct follow through. So I thought when it comes to my own shooting I'd be all over it. Turns out we all need reminders sometimes.